Ready for a “fresh start”

No fewer than eight competitive games stand before FSV before the winter break calls a short pause to their busy schedule over Christmas and the new year. Head coach Bo Henriksen’s team will be hoping to make use of the pre-holiday intensity to develop a positive feeling at the club and start to rebuild some of that missing confidence in the Bundesliga. The 05ers won’t want to hesitate to get started, with the boys keen to return to top-flight football on Friday night with a win as TSG 1899 Hoffenheim pay the MEWA ARENA a visit: “We want to play good football and take all three points. Of course, that would act as a kind of fresh start,” said Henriksen, speaking to the press the day before the game. TSG have failed to get anything out of FSV across their last four trips to Mainz, but will be highly motivated to continue their good form and maintain their position in the chasing pack towards the top of the Bundesliga table. While Hoffenheim currently sit sixth, having taken 19 points from 10 games, the 05ers remain second-bottom with just five points to their name – a tally way off of the club’s ambitions, as the head coach himself had no trouble admitting.

Henriksen on...

...the remaining weeks of this year: “We’ve got five finals in the next month or so, and we want to pick up as many points as we possibly can. Today we’re focused on Hoffenheim, we want to play good football and take all three points. Of course, that would act as a kind of fresh start.”

...the current approach: “The performances over the last few weeks have ranged between good to decent, but it’s not all about avoiding defeat; rather, we’re focused on giving one hundred percent every week and believing that we can win each game. You need to be determined and courageous, and that goes for me as much as for the lads. Courage is the most important thing that we need as a club at this moment. It starts with the day-to-day work that we do, but also needs to be there in the starting XI and with the substitutes. We have to try everything, but it’s also crucial that we stay positive, because we want to improve this team through everything we’re doing.”

...disappointing form in the league: “Often when you’re in a bad run of form, you’re also missing that bit of luck. That’s as much the case in football as it is in life. When the self-confidence isn’t there, you start to make more and more mistakes. Our role is to help the players to make the right decisions more often, all over the pitch, of course, but especially in the final third. We want to be scoring more, and the fact of the matter is that we need to as well.”

...the squad situation: “Everyone is more or less fit. Nadiem had a few issues and started slowly this week as a result. We’re hoping that he’ll be back to 100% by tomorrow. We were in contact with the associations for Kaishu and Lee, considering our situation but also because Japan and South Korea were playing friendlies this month. Both of them have played so many minutes for us, and the next few weeks are going to be tough, starting tomorrow with a Friday night game. In this respect, it was important for us that their workloads were carefully managed.”

...tomorrow’s opponent: “Hoffenheim are a quality side and added a lot of talent this summer. They want to play football, and they have a solid structure. We understand their strengths, but we’ve also got a plan to get at them. We have the quality to do it, but we need the experience together on the pitch. We want to play our way with courage and power.”

...Anthony Caci’s recovery: “He’s trying to step up the workload every day. We hope that he can be involved in two or three games before the close of the year. But with this kind of injury, it’s difficult to map out the exact path back to fitness.”